I currently have a wilderness & Half Dome permit for mid-June starting at Glacier Point, camping at Illilouette Creek on the first night. But I'm now thinking I'd like to climb Cloud's Rest instead, hopefully camping near the JMT/Cloud's rest junction on the first night (~7miles from Glacier Point via Panorama Trail). I need to call the office to see if it is possible for me to change my permit accordingly. But assuming it is possible, I wanted to ask for thoughts on the following plan:

Postby Justin-T » Mon Feb 19, 2018 4:27 pmYeah, I agree on the last day being tiring. The other point is that when you get to the summit of CR you will want to pause there for a while to drink it in. This is arguably the most spectacular view in the entire park - better than the top of Half Dome in my opinion. Its a full 360 and will take your breath away. Your schedule gets you to the top of CR, but at a tremendous cost of feeling like the entire rest of the day will be hurried. YMMV, but I'd recommend trying to figure out a different strategy to see CR, if that's a major goal.

This year the Tioga Rd may well open in time for you (but depends on how much snow there is between now and May), in which case you could park in the valley, get the bus (or hitch) up to Sunrise and hike in to Sunrise Lakes. Beautiful spot to camp, will likely only be you there, about 5 miles (?). Day two go to CR (about 5 miles?), camp just below (east of) the summit, spectacular views over Tenaya Canyon, and you can go up the CR summit (easy 20-30 min scramble) for sunset with a daypack - a magical experience, again probably just you, you can spend 2 hours there if you want. Day 3 you see the summit again, then hike out to the valley, less distance and dropping from 10,000' down to 4,000' means its pretty easy hiking. Far better experience overall IMHO. BUT, the permit will be much sought-after, only 6 walk-ups per day for Sunrise Lakes. However, there are some reservable permits (maybe only 1 per day) still available for June 14 and 18 from Sunrise Lakes:

Postby balzaccom » Fri Feb 23, 2018 5:26 amSo far there is not enough snow up there to worry about. I hope we get a ton more....but right now your permit looks like a pretty good bet.

Postby Justin-T » Fri Feb 23, 2018 5:36 pmYou might want to read this thread for more info on likely opening dates, based on historical snowpack data April 1 each year. As you might expect, there's a strong correlation between the amount of snow left late in the winter, with how long it takes them to clear the snow, remove boulders & fallen trees, repair various road damage:

You will also want to gather info about the route. The one tricky part to this is that there's no water available at the area just below CR that people commonly use. You will need to carry what you need for the evening and next morning from the last available spot which is about 2 or 3 miles from the campsite. So, no biggie, but you do need to bring capacity for an extra several liters of water (I like the Platypus brand, extremely light when empty and flatten to nothing so they're a cinch to pack when not needed).

There's also a pretty strenuous climb (switchbacking granite stairs) up the last 1000' up to the crest above Sunrise Lakes, so make sure you are properly acclimatized (this is up around 8000'). I can also recommend a little scramble up the rocks beside the western edge of the second Sunrise Lake after dinner, about 5 minutes of effort for some GREAT views. Most people camp near the second or third (most northerly and easterly of the three respectively) lakes, the second is my favorite.